SpecialOps: Karan Tacker On Shooting His Audition Tape In A Hotel's Restroom, Playing A RAW Agent, Working With Neeraj Pandey And MORE – EXCLUSIVE
TV heartthrob Karan Tacker, in an exclusive conversation with us, opens up on playing a RAW agent in his upcoming web series titled SpecialOps, read on
The television heartthrob Karan Tacker, who rose to fame with his remarkable performances in shows like Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai and Rang Badalti Odhani among others, is all set to foray into the world of OTT with his upcoming espionage thriller titled SpecialOps. The show has been helmed by acclaimed filmmaker Neeraj Pandey and is an eight-part series chronicling India facing terrorism. In an exclusive conversation with SpotboyE, Karan opened up his OTT debut and his adventurous audition shoot for the show. Read on.
Well, it turns out that Karan Tacker shot his audition tape for SpecialOps in a washroom of a hotel room in Mussoorie. “I was travelling; I was not in Bombay. I was in Mussoorie at that time and you know it just gets tough in hotel rooms to kind of stand out and at times there’s no light, the sound doesn’t get recorded properly. So, I mean, a public toilet sounds very public, it was the restroom of a hotel and that’s where I recorded my bit and ya, I sent it from there,” laughs the actor.
Upon being asked if it was a very need of that hour and Karan adds, “It was an absolute need of the hour because you know I was still going to take a couple of days to come back to Mumbai, as I was in the mountains and the casting director told me ki ‘yaar, filhal ek audition tape bhejde’ just to kind of stall the casting and it might work out so I was like chalo theek ha, try karlete hai. Fortunately, it worked out and I am extremely happy that it did.”
SpecialOps brings Karan back to a show’s set after almost seven years. We asked the actor to elaborate on how different is it to work on a web series in comparison to a television show and he says, “It’s, of course, it’s different, you know the kind of content and making is different. So, first things first, the writing of the show is extremely different from what I have done on television. Well, because of that the approach towards the character also becomes brand new. What happens in TV is that we don’t get a script per se the track on the show because it’s a daily soap and it’s an ongoing story. But when you are shooting at series or you are shooting at films, you know there’s a hardbound script from start to finish. So, that really helps you in level up your performance.”
Neeraj Pandey is synonymous with the thriller/espionage genre in Bollywood with films like Special 26 and Baby among others. Upon being asked about his experience on working with the acclaimed filmmaker, Karan says, “Neeraj Pandey is fantastic you know. He’s really clear in what he wants from his character. So, it becomes really fun to work with someone who knows the genre well which is espionage and most importantly, he’s co-written the script. So, his vision further becomes clearer. And as an actor, that kind of really helps you in doing your job. The best part of working with Neeraj sir is that he keeps it in a very real light.”
Karan Tacker plays a RAW agent in the show, “It’s an international espionage and an international spy thriller. I play the character of Farooq Ali, who is a RAW agent and without revealing too much, we are set out to look for a man who we have been searching for, for the last nineteen years. My boss Mr Himmat Singh sets me out on a journey of finding this man, who is involved in a lot of terror attacks.”
We also asked Karan whether, with the rapid rise OTT platforms and its content, the TV industry has sort of lost its charm and audience, to which, the actor said, “I don’t quite think so. I feel they all, you know TV, digital and films, everything’s just going to run parallel to each other because everything has its own audience. The people who consume TV are a very loyal TV audience and they enjoy that region and fun. So, I don’t think TV is ever going to lose its charm and great content is going to find its own space and audience.”
SpecialOps will stream on Hotstar from March 17.
image source: PR